Welcome to Slimmeria - prepare to overdose on lettuce and be whipped with birch leaves

The objective is to help you lose weight – and as owner Galia Grainger puts it, it’s the price you should expect to pay to be slim.

She forbids guests from eating carbs, caffeine and booze, and takes every opportunity to berate her customers over how much sugar they eat, claiming it’s “like cocaine”.

The 60-year-old, originally from Uzbekistan, claims one customer once shed 26lb in a week – a personal best for the self-proclaimed diet dominatrix who is of the opinion that “what doesn't kill you makes you thin”.

And in case anyone forgets why they’re paying a small fortune to be at her hotel, Galia’s sports car has the number plate AM I 2 FAT as a handy reminder.

With celebrity clients like Jennifer Ellison, Bianca Gascoigne and Lisa Riley, who used her retreat to kick-start her 12st weight loss, it seems there is some weight (sorry) behind Galia’s bonkers techniques.

The mum-of-one, also known as the Slim Reaper, certainly takes no prisoners.

One guest on this week’s show called Kirsty, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is panic-dieting after buying a wedding dress two sizes too small for her.

She receives the full brunt of Galia’s venom after whinging about her diet of lettuce.

Having claimed she’ll be sick if she chows down another leaf, Galia shouts: “Be sick! Then eat your lettuce.”

In case that wasn’t threatening enough, she stands over her with a bell and demands she chews, “NOW!”

Galia is, after all, looking out for her, as she’s decided Kirsty will complete a 5K run at the end of the week, despite having done no exercise in years and surviving on a diet of 450 calories a day.

A stay at her hotel is also an emotional detox - Galia wants her guests to cry as it’s “part of the process, breaking them down”.

Put simply, it’s her way or “no way” – and she doesn’t mince her words.

Speaking about one guest who came to her in tears because none of her clothes fitted her, Galia recalls: “She was unhappy. She was single, and all her friends were married. I said, 'Are they slim?' She said: 'Yes.' I said: 'I rest my case.'

Galia admits she understands how tempting it is to gorge yourself on junk food, having once battled with her own weight

Typical daily programme at Slimmeria

7.15am – Wake Up

7.45am – Detox tonic

8.00am – Accompanied or unaccompanied walk

10.00am – Breakfast

10.30am – Fitness class1

11:30am – Yoga

12.30pm – Lunch

1.30pm – Spa treatments (if applicable or booked)

3.30pm – Afternoon tea

6.30pm – Dinner

7.15pm – Motivation workshop, dance class or Nutrition class

9.00pm – Rest time

At her Slimmeria hotel, guests go on a “short, sharp” diet to help shock their metabolism and cleanse their bodies, and must complete a two-hour walk every day, during which Galia screams at them to sweat more.

They are allowed some treats – the odd slice of apple and a single “magic raisin”.

It sounds more like a house of horrors than a hotel. And Galia admits her guests hate her – but she doesn’t care.

She says: “When they get on the scales at the end of the week, they will love me.”